My First Experience With A Red Dot Sight

I have a S&W 686-6 6" that I thought shot fairly well. Narrowed down my favorite load using the RCBS 38-158-CW boolet, and could hold the 10 ring @27 yards with Irons and my 82 year old eyes.
This is shooting over a rest.

A while ago I picked up a used 30mm Ultra Dot sight at my favorite LGS and finally got it mounted. Now I'm easily shooting inside the X ring. I can't believe the difference.

While fooling around with this new device, I notice quite a bit of parallax distortion. While holding the gun stationary in a rest and moving my head, the red dot will move the entire width of the black on the 25 yard target. I've got to be very careful to center the dot in the field. Is this normal with red dot sights?

Your comments most welcome. Thanks.

No experience with red dots. Glad you found something that helps you shoot better. Congratulations.

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From what I have read, and watched on youtube; parallax is not supposed to matter with red dot sights.

With that said, I have never been able to get comfortable with a red dot or scope on a revolver. It seems I just naturally look at the level of iron sights and can't break the habit.

I have looked through red dot sights mounted on semi auto's and seem to have no problem lining the gun up with the target. Unfortunately this was all in a gun shop, no live fire. I am not willing to spend several hundred dollars just to try one out.

Robert

Red dots and green dots are great for older eyes, combined with suppressors they are awesome.

Some are worse than others. They all have it to some degree, but as you’ve already figured it out you can see you’ll still shoot better with the red dot than without it. Don’t get too hung up on a little bit of parallax in a handgun. FWIW, I have three SW 686’s and they are all outstanding shooters.

Most of my experience is with the Bushnell Holosight. They are great!

I do not know about parallax, I just know at age 67 I shoot way better with than without.

Three44s

A 30mm ultradot is about the best that you can get. I handgun hunt, and love the 30mm ultradot. I think that you just need a little more practice with it. After a while, that dot will come up in the middle every time. I have found that where you put the dot is where you hit. It is not like trying to line up a handgun scope, where you need to center the crosshairs. Also, are you sure that the brightness isn’t too high. I start the hunting day in the dark, and my red dot is on 1. As the sun comes up, I need to brighten the dot. If you are seeing a starburst dot, it is too high. Experiment with it, and you will see what I mean. Some people have some eye issues that make a red dot a bad choice, like astigmatism. Here are my hunting revolvers. From top 480 ruger, 45 colt, 41 magnum, and 357 magnum.

Been scoping Contenders since the late '70's early '80's...Maybe I should try a "dot".... For some reason, I still feel Comfortable with a Really Good set of open sights!!!

I like red dots.

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i have two burris ff 3,s and like them, i don,t shoot over 100 yards. i can hit a small soup can at that distance. a plus is burris has a no fault warranty.

The Red dot I like best is mounted on my HiPoint .45acp carbine. And I like it best because it co-witnesses with the sights. Telling me that I know I'm in the right spot and that I can trust that when I cycle the trigger the boolit is going to go where the dot is. And it does, exactly.

Second favorite is on my Ruger Mk III 22/45 with 5" + barrel. Offhand at 21 feet it will put 10 out of 10 rounds in a pop bottle or water bottle cap and not touch the sides. And it will do it quick, about 5 or 6 seconds.

Line up the sight, stroke the trigger, ride the recoil down and as the sights cross the bull stroke trigger again. With a little practice it becomes intuitive.

Or you can play a little baseball.
Put 3 or 4 1" black dots on a large orange pistol slow fire target. Start low at home plate, one at 3, one at 12, one at 9.
Then fire single shots and each time you hit that 1" dot move to the next target. With a little practice you can run 11 rounds (10 in mag plus 1 chambered) in 7 to 9 seconds. You can go either way around the circle or go across and up and down.

Parallax shouldn't be an issue with a quality red dot until the distances open up significantly. In point of fact, one of the better drills for helping students build speed on them is to hold the gun to deliberately present with a less-than-perfect sight picture: shoot three rounds with the dot at the 12:00 of the window, another three at 3:00, another three at 6:00, etc...

The lesson is that the bullet goes where the dot is, and we've found that to pretty solidly be the case to about 50 yards, commensurate of course with the distance off the exact yardage the sight was zeroed for. Once you realized you don't need the dot perfectly centered in the window to get perfect results, you can really stomp on the gas.

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Shot at a measured 114 yards off my porch railing at camp. I was shooting a Win 1886 45-70. I doubt I could do any better with a scope on the gun. I was using a Burris FF3 with a 3 moa dot. Don’t worry about parallax. I had a crosswind of about 10pmh while I was shooting this five shot group.

First off,, KUDOS on getting a top quality red dot optic like the UltraDot. I too have a couple of the 30mm UltraDots. I also own a gun range, and we shoot USPSA here monthly. I see a LOT of red dot optics, and I use them on several handguns. I share this to quantify my info.

When I got my first red dot,, I too "thought" I needed to "center the dot" in the view to be accurate. I thought I had a lot of parallax, and sold my first one. (LONG ago.) Well, later on,, I had someone explain to me it wasn't parallax causing the dot to appear to me. It was my eyes, and my presentation.

It's been mentioned above.

Once zeroed, the bullet will go where the dot is at,, no matter where it sits in the view of the optic glass. Once zeroed to you & your gun, the best advice is this; "When the dot is on the target, pull the trigger." In general,, due to MOA sizes & often the distances,, a red dot is NOT as precise as a fine scope. But it comes close to it.
As mentioned, various eye issues,, especially for us older folks,, such as an astigmatism, can cause distortion. I have a mild astigmatism,, and I get some starbursting using mine. I prefer smaller MOA dots for better precision, AND a reduced starburst.
One other things are glasses. I wear glasses,, and that can be a truly frustrating thing. Especially with bi-focals. I will suspect you may be wearing bi-focals,, and that is why the dot appears to shift. I have a set of plain glasses,, with one focal plane, made by my optometrist, just for shooting. I took my handgun in with me to allow them to see the distance from my eye to my front sight. They made a set of prescription shooting glasses for me.

You mentioned your 82 year old eyes,, and I'd bet a lot in Vegas and WIN that the issue is simply your eyes. When you move your head,, your eyes move & the dot appears to move. It's not a parallax issue,, it's simply a DIFFERENT way to look at a sighting device.
I made that mistake long ago. Now I know better.

just curious, does it matter if they are utilized with one or two eyes open ?

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Originally Posted by schutzen-jager

just curious, does it matter if they are utilized with one or two eyes open ?

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Not at all

Thanks to all for your feedback. Much appreciated.

This ultradot sight has been a learning experience for me. An old dog can learn new tricks.

I picked this sight up on a whim, it was sitting on the counter for a hundred bucks and took a chance on it. Had no idea how much it would improve my shooting. Eliminates all sight alignment problems. I'm happy!

If you decide you don't like it,, I'll buy it from you for a hundred bucks. UltraDot is a well respected & appreciated name in red dots.

Use it more & understand how it works,, and you will grow to appreciate them even more.